Drastic intervention by the Federal Reserve sent investors into panic mode Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging 2,250 points at the open and trading suspended almost immediately.

It was the third time in two weeks the New York Stock Exchange triggered the so-called circuit breaker, a rarely used lever, to stop stocks from free-fall and give traders time to get their bearings. It’s activated when the S&P 500 falls 7 percent; on Monday the index skidded more than 8.1 percent before trading stopped for 15 minutes.

There was some recovery in the Dow by early afternoon, with the blue-chip index paring its losses to 1,935 points, or 8.4 percent. But by mid-afternoon all gains were gone. Shortly before 2:30, the Dow was down more than 2,350 points, or 10.1 percent. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy sank 9.6 percent and the Nasdaq declined 9.8 percent.

The Dow erased most of the nearly 2,000-point jolt it got Friday after President Trump issued an emergency declaration over the coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted nearly every aspect of American life and threatens to catapult the United States into recession. On Saturday, the House passed legislation, backed by Trump, that would spend billions of dollars on medical tests, paid sick leave for affected workers and unemployment insurance.